What is this Feeling?
Amanda saw her friends playing at recess without her. She walked away and sat down on the ground and wiped away her tears. What emotion(s) is she feeling and where is she on the feeling thermometer?
Feeling: sad, left out,
Feeling Thermometer: Blue
What skill/muscle relaxation technique involves a wand and a warm blue light?
Demonstrate the skill and explain the skill to earn full points.
Name: Body Scan (magic wand body scan)
Explanation: imagine a warm blue light coming from the wand that starts at your head and slowly moves down your body relaxing each muscle it reaches. Notice the feeling in your body before the blue light reaches your body and after.
What might be Jane's first thought in this situation? What would be a helpful thought that Jane could have instead?
"Jane wanted to go over to her friend's house, but her parents said no because she hasn't been doing her chores at home."
Answer: 1st thought "This isn't fair I'm going to walk over my friend's house anyway."
helpful thought: "I really want to go over my friend's house. But I didn't do my chores. Maybe if I get it done now my parents will let me go over her house. I'll go ask."
What is a Feelings Thermometer and what does it help us do?
Hint: (Feelings Thermometer helps us do more than one thing and helps us build multiple skills)
Answers: 1.) It helps us recognize what we are feeling
2.) Helps build self-awareness - to identify our own personal warning signs (triggers) and let us know that we need to use a skill/resource to lower our feeling thermometer
3.) Builds Communication Skills for letting others know how and what you're feeling so we can get support.
4.) Builds Emotional Regulation Skills - if you know what you're feeling you can better handle them.
5.) Decision Making - Recognizing our emotions can help us slow down our decision-making process so that we can make decisions when we are in a more balanced state to make healthy/better choices.
What are some of the skills we have learned in bounce back that are connected to the Triangle?
Name at least three that have been helpful for you specifically when your feeling thermometer rises.
Answer: Identifying Feelings, relaxation techniques like (squeezing lemons, belly breathing, talking about your feelings to a friend or adult, physical exercise, etc.), Activities that make you feel happy (playing video games, music, sports, dance, spending time with family or friends), Courage Thoughts, "I Can Do it Ladder", Ignoring, Walking away.
How would Jake feel if he got an answer wrong in front of the class? After he got the question wrong. His face turned a little red and he put his head on his desk, and he had his arms covering his head and was quiet the rest of the class. Where would he be on the feeling thermometer and what would he be feeling?
Feeling: Embarrassed, Worried, Sad
Thermometer: Yellow/Blue
What skill has you tighten and then relax your hands?
Explain and demonstrate for full points.
Answer: Lemon squeezing
Explanation: you tighten your hands at your sides then throw the lemons on the ground. After throwing them on the ground relax and loosen your hands.
Nelly took her classmate's lunchbox and stole their snack out of it and put it into her own lunchbox because "this is my favorite snack, and Jacob was mean to me yesterday so I'm going to take his snack". The teacher saw Nelly steal his snack and now Nelly now has to sit inside for recess. She sits at her desk crying thinking "I just wanted his snack because it's my favorite and he stole my favorite toy during recess yesterday!!! This isn't fair!!!"
How did Nelly's actions impact her feelings and thoughts?
How could Nelly change her thoughts to improve her feeling?
Answer: Nelly chose to steal Jacob's snack to get even. This made her feel happy that she got back at him and that she was able to get her favorite snack too. But Nelly felt mad and sad after the teacher saw what had happened because she felt like it wasn't fair that she gets punished when Jacob never got punished. This makes Nelly think that she is being treated unfairly and leads to her crying.
What is a tool I could use to help change this unhelpful thought which is making me feel (Sad, Worried, Anxious): "I'm going to mess up this play and forget my lines."
Answer: Courage Thought!!!
What are some of your own Courage thoughts that help get you through hard times?
Identify people in your life who are "On your Team" who you feel comfortable with and go to for support. This could be in multiple different settings (school, home, extra-curricular activities that happen afterschool or before school like: {sports, dance, art club, boy schouts, girl scouts, YMCA, Boys and Girls Club}, or religious communities such as a church)
After you identify the people on your team answer this question: Why is it important to remember who we are connected to or who is on our team at school and at home?
Answer: Whoever you mentioned on your team that you feel you can go to for support is the correct answer :)
It is important to know and identify the people who are on our team because they can help us when we are having problems or they can provide support when we are experiencing big emotions or life changes.
Greg is in a classroom that is very noisy. Greg takes his headphones and puts them on his head. The noise isn't as loud, and Greg continues doing his worksheet. But from time to time the noise gets too loud and Greg has to leave the classroom for breaks. Greg knows that noise can make his feeling thermometer change so he tries to make choices that will help him feel better. What emotions was Greg feeling? Where would he be on the Feelings Thermometer?
Feeling: Calm, frustrated, getting overwhelmed
Thermometer: Starts in (Green) feels calm focused ready to learn. Then as the class gets louder, he moves to (Yellow) because he is starting to feel frustrated and overwhelmed due to the noise. Greg puts on his headphones which helps but then as the classroom gets too noisy even with the headphones, he needs to take breaks outside of the classroom to get back to (Green)
What skill makes you tighten your shoulders and then relax them?
Demonstrate and explain for full points.
Name: Turtle relaxation
Explanation: Raise your shoulders up to your head like a turtle in their shell. Tighten your muscles as you raise them. Then lower your shoulders back down and loosen your muscles.
What is the Circle of Control?
How does the Cricle of Control connect to the Triangle?
Answer: The circle of control is a tool that teaches us to focus on the things that you can do something about to help your overall well-being.
The circle of control is a visual representation of the things people can and cannot control. For example, negative events like the pandemic, how others treat you, and the past are things that you have no power over.
How this Connects to the Triangle: The Circle of Control teaches us and helps us build the ability to cope with strong emotions and difficult events in our lives. This connects to how certain situations may make us feel, which impacts how we think, and then act. The Circle of Control helps us recognize what we can do to improve our situations and mental and emotional health.
Name the Triangle and all 3 of its parts and how the triangle can help our rising feelings thermometer?
Answer: Thoughts, Feelings, Actions
Our Thoughts, Feelings, and Actions influence each other. Changing one corner or part of the triangle can help change the other two parts. So, if you're feeling Sad and you change your thought from, "I'm unlikable and no one likes me" to "I know how to play soccer really well and my teammates like me". This can then change your feeling and actions.
When you're working on your "I Can Do it Ladder" steps where should you start with the first step?
Ex: Let's say the goal for the ladder is to be able to swim in the deep end of the pool. But this person has never swam before. What should be their first step?
Answer: Their first step should be a small step that gradually build their skill and confidence to be able to do a little bit more than last time.
For example: The first step for this person may be watching other people swim and being near the water without going in. Once they're comfortable with this the next step may be to put their toe in the water and keep building up towards their goal of being able to swim in the deep end.
Kiki won a leadership award from her school letting her know what an amazing job she has been doing at school. The school principal told Kiki that she was a determined, hardworking, kind, and thoughtful student. The principal asks Kiki if she can do a speech to the whole school talking about herself and her accomplishments. Kiki feels her stomach swirl and her hands start to get sweaty. Kiki agrees to do the speech and the principal is delighted. What is Kiki feeling and where is she on the Feeling Fhermometer?
Feeling: Happy, Proud, Excited, Flattered, Anxious, Worried, Scared.
Thermometer: Starts in (Green) happy and clam and moves towards (Yellow) when asked to do the speech. Her body feels anxious in her stomach and hands.
This skill was practiced using crayons on your stomach slowly rising and falling.
Demonstrate this and explain for full points.
Name: Belly Breathing
Explanation: Don't breathe with your chest but with your belly. Imagine the crayons being the only thing that can move up and down as you breathe.
Chuck is on the swings by himself and watching his classmates play four square. He thinks "I'd like to play too, but no one would want to play with me." Chuck's shoulders come down and his head is staring at the ground. He slowly walks back to class when the recess bell rings and doesn't hear that his classmates are saying "Hi" to Chuck.
Which parts of the Triangle impacted Chuck? What could Chuck do next time to change how he is feeling and acting?
Answer: His thoughts impacted his feelings and then his actions. Chuck thought no one wanted to play with him which made him feel sad and lonely. This impacted his body language being slumped and low energy. Since he was sad and felt like no one wanted to play with him he didn't hear his classmates who were being friendly and saying "hi"
What could Chuck do? - He could use a courage thought to help change his unhelpful thought to a helpful one. He could try to play four square and see is that changes his thought or feeling. He could talk to a trusted adult or friend about how he is feeling.
What is a "I can do it Ladder"? What is it used for?
Answer: "I can do it ladders" helps us to take small steps toward doing something that is hard or scary. Doing it in smaller steps helps to make it easier to accomplish the hard or scary things.
When you do belly breathing which way should your stomach or stuffed animal on your stomach go when you take a deep breath in?
Answer: Your stomach should be going out.
Tony went outside to play with his friends on the playground. He wanted to play freeze tag, but his friends wanted to play a different game. Tony squeezed his hands tightly and scrunched up his face. He walked away from his friends squeezed his hands tightly and then relaxing them until he was ready to go back to his friends and play. What was Tony feeling and where was he on the feelings Thermometer at the beginning, middle, and end of the story?
Bonus Question: What skill does Tony use in this story to help him feel better?
Feeling: Mad, Frustrated, Upset, Sad (beginning). (middle) Annoyed, Disappointed. (end) calm, ready, relaxed,
Thermometer: Started in (green) happy to play with his friends. (Red/Blue) Mad when his friends didn't want to play freeze tag and sad that they rather play a different game. (Yellow) feeling frustrated, annoyed, and disappointed but he is using a skill to regulate. (Green) feels calmer now that he took time to use skills to regulate and more relaxed. Tony feels ready to play with his friends again.
Bouns Answer: Lemon Squeezing
This skill was practiced once and very quickly towards the end of group. We imagined something on our nose. What was it that we pretended to have on our nose and what were we trying to do? What does this skill teach us?
Hint: We scrunched our noses and couldn't use our hands to make _______ go ______.
Answer: A fly was on our nose, and we tried to get him off without using your hands. We did this by wrinkling up our noses. We scrunched our nose up real hard to chase him away. After scrunching we relax our nose.
Notice when you scrunch up your nose that your cheeks and your mouth and your forehead and your eyes all help you, and they get tight too. So when you relax your nose, your whole face relaxes too, and that feels good. This is a good muscle tensing and relaxation skill that can help us lower our feeling thermometer.
Gabby walked onto the court ready to play basketball. She felt her stomach tingle and her heart quicken. She's played many games before, but this one felt bigger since it was the championship game. Gabby thinks to herself "You've practiced all of coach's plays a hundred times. You can do this. You have your whole team supporting you. Win or lose this will be a fun and challenging game!"
Gabby and her team are in sync making all the right choices and plays to tie up the game. Gabby misses some shots, and the other team takes advantage to steal the ball and score some shots of their own. Gabby sighs feeling frustrated that she feels like the reason the other team scored. But she remembers that her and her team can do this. They have a timeout and her teammates tell Gabby "Hey it's not your fault that they go those points." Gabby says "Thank you guys, I just feel a lot of pressure and I'm not feeling confident in myself. But talking to you guys helps a lot so thank you." Gabby gets fouled on her way for a layup and goes to the free throw line. She smiles at the while standing at the line and sinks in the winning shot!!! They won the championship game!!!
In this short story which parts of the Triangle impacted Gabby and what skills did she use to help her overcome the challenges she faced?
Answer: Gabby uses helpful courage thoughts in the beginning when she feels nervous/excited about the game. She uses her teammates as support when she is feeling that it is her fault for the opposing team being in the lead. She then chooses to focus on the present moment and the game, and it makes her feel focused and ready.
Here is Sarah's Goal for her "I can do it ladder": "I want to be able go on a roller coaster for summer break, but I am terrified of heights."
Answer: Sarah's first step is imaging being high up and practicing a skill that helps her clam down like: (belly breathing, courage thoughts, or talking to her mom about how she is feeling being high up)
Sarah then practices using these skills on a small hill until she feels confident in her ability to calm herself down using her skills on the small hill.
Sarah then practices using the skills on a large flight of stairs.
Sarah practices by going to an amusement park but not going on any of the rides. She imagines that she is going on the rides and practices her skills.
Sarah chooses to go on a quick ride that isn't tall and uses her skills while on the ride.
Sarah then chooses a taller ride to go onto and uses her skills.
Then Sarah goes on the tallest ride and makes it all the way through!
Name a skill you could use in this situation that would help make the problem smaller instead of larger: "A classmate at recess stole the basketball you were using and started playing basketball with their friends."
Answer: using the triangle to change how you're feeling, thinking, or behaving, any of the relaxation techniques, ignoring, walking away, talking to a friend or adult about how you're feeling, etc.